Excellent Idea!

MS doesn't need to give copies to all of the typical nonsense YouTube content creators that do nothing more than monetize there presence on YouTube!

The most glaring issue with reviews comes down to the fact that no one will truly give something a "real" bad review for fear of no longer having an opportunity to obtain content so their channel can continue to be monetized.

 

 

 

22 minutes ago, tpete61 said:

The most glaring issue with reviews comes down to the fact that no one will truly give something a "real" bad review for fear of no longer having an opportunity to obtain content so their channel can continue to be monetized.

With all due respect that's a pretty myopic view of reviewers, and the fact that you talk about "channels" tells me that you're confusing reviewers with "YouTubers." 

There are a gazillion negative reviews of pretty much everything out there, so your point is obviously invalid, as a matter of fact, many reviewers that aren't very professional are incentivized to be negative and nitpicky because negativity sells and pretty much turns into traffic much easier than positivity.

Any PR worth their salt knows that refusing to give review copies to people just because they have given you a negative review in the past is self-defeating. A PR's job is first and foremost to give a game visibility. If you start blacklisting people for negative reviews, you'll soon run out of people to review your products and if these people have any following, you'll likely get unwanted backlash. 

In 20+ years doing reviews professionally on multiple outlets before I started working for an outlet that doesn't do reviews this year, I never once saw a PR refuse a review copy because of previous negative reviews. Not once. People get blacklisted for breaking embargos, for leaking stuff, or for other unprofessional behaviors, not for a 2 out of 10. 

The *real* problem with reviews is that nowadays most reviewers have lost the ability to put themselves in the shoes of their audience, and review mostly their personal feelings and not so much the actual quality of the game. Hence, unless you find a reviewer that you can relate almost completely with, a review will be a poor guide to whether you will like a game or not. While 100% objectivity is impossible, the trend for reviews nowadays is to stop striving for it and to be 100% subjective, which turns the reviews into little more than entertainment as opposed to a guide describing the actual quality of a product.

Edited November 11, 20241 yr by Abriael

9 minutes ago, Abriael said:

While 100% objectivity is impossible, the trend for reviews nowadays is to stop striving for it and to be 100% subjective, which turns the reviews into little more than entertainment as opposed to a guide describing the actual quality of a product.

Correct, Most all of these people reviewing stuff are nothing more than entertainment!

Nothing more here!

8 minutes ago, tpete61 said:

Correct, Most all of these people reviewing stuff are nothing more than entertainment!

Nothing more here!

The truth is that nowadays, not only you won't be denied review copies for negative reviews (that never happened) but it's way too easy to obtain review copies, and PR won't do much screening for the professionalism and quality *of the reviewers themselves* in their quest to maximize visibility.

This has turned into a scenario in which poor quality reviews are the majority and there's no requirement of any journalistic integrity, especially among YouTubers (not saying that all YouTubers are bad. Far from that. But most of them don't have editors that keep them accountable or any journalistic education, which shows).

Hell, I've told almost everyone (including Microsoft lol) that we don't reviews, and I still get like 10 emails a day offering review copies. Getting them really isn't hard. I promise. 😂

I'm bracing for the gazillion of really dumb and igno*ant (really? the forum censors this?) reviews and articles about MSFS 2024 from people who have no business reviewing a tricycle simulator, let alone a flight simulator. If 2020 is any indicator, it's gonna be a carnage. Perhaps, the late review copies will help curbing these a bit.

Edited November 11, 20241 yr by Abriael

49 minutes ago, Abriael said:

Ah, the FUD.

This isn't the movie business. In the gaming business, when a game is heavily dependent on online services, people don't get early review copies because the services don't get turned on just for them, and reviewing with the services not under load would be misleading anyway. This is the norm.

I did read that and also something about some sort of last minute patch that won't be available until pretty much release day.  This is the reason why they are supposedly not releasing it for reviewers.  I sure hope so and I hope what I was seeing in the alpha test was not the final product.  I have been assured my the community it is not and I hope they are correct!

2 minutes ago, longhaul747 said:

I have been assured my the community it is not

Asobo themselves said it wasn't. That should be enough.

And you could even see that it wasn't because it was missing features they've shown off in previews.

Edited November 11, 20241 yr by Tuskin38

Just now, Tuskin38 said:

Asobo themselves said it wasn't, not the community.

And you could even see that it wasn't because it was missing features.

Yeah you are right Asobo did say that but the community also said it was not the final version since that what Asobo said.  We won't know until release day!

My opinion which is worth 1 cent is minus the features left out of the alpha build what we were seeing out the window was essentially the final product.  I am almost willing to put real money on it!  

I will be glad when I am proven wrong on release day.  I am one of those glass is half empty type people so don't listen to me!

10 hours ago, MarcG said:

The lack of review copies, the lack of a beta, a day one patch, these things don't often bode well in gaming and going on MS/Asobos track history with poor Quality Control it could spell a dodgy release 👀 

Still getting day one, but preparing myself for buggy mess, not being negative just realistic. I've seen enough game releases on day one to know, fingers crossed this one's a good one though, we'll soon find out🤞

You can pretty much guarantee there will be turbulence. I have not ordered and do not plan on doing so on day one until others confirm that things are working reasonably well. That could take 30 minutes after release or a day. I am patient.